Sophie's Halloo Read Online Free PDF

sound rather suspicious if one is not used to hearing it, but I assure you that Rotten Row is a very respectable lane along Hyde Park. At this time of day there will be any number of the most fashionable people there on horse or in carriage—and some less so, I might add. I thought it might amuse you on your first day to see one of the fashionable strolls. You might even glimpse the Prince Regent.”
    “Oh,” said Sophie with visible relief. “I thought...” She did not finish.
    “That your Aunt Sadie might have been wrong, perhaps?” said Tony, before adding cryptically, “I shall await your permission for that.”
    By the time Sophie had digested this comment and thought to blush, they had arrived at the park and Tony had changed the subject. He began to point out persons of interest to her as he slowed the pace of his horses. She had to admire the ease with which he kept them under control while conversing, not seeming to have them much in mind.
    “Who are those young men over there?” Sophie asked. “The ones who all seem to be yawning. Could they be bored with Town life already?”
    Tony cocked an eye at them. “Those are what we call ‘peep-o-day boys,’“ he said. “They are out-and-out larkers. They spend their nights on the prowl for adventure, not going to bed until morning, so that this time of day they are just waking—or trying to, by the looks of them.”
    “What do they find to do all night?” asked Sophie. The notion was intriguing.
    “Oh, there are any number of strange, wild things to do in the streets at night,” he answered. “What was it the Scotch poet said? ‘Here are we met three merry boys,/ three merry boys I trow are we./ And mony a night we’ve merry been,/ and mony mae we hope to be.’“ Sophie smiled as he went on.
    “There is much to be said for it really, although I’m afraid that the greater number of those fellows spend the night getting progressively drunker, until there’s not much that they would recall. But after the theatre or the opera or a ball, there are curious things to be seen in the less fashionable quarters of the city. There are the coffee houses or sluiceries—for gin, you know—where one meets up with all walks of life. You might see a beggar, whom you saw hobbling on crutches near Temple Bar that morning, dance a jig with the proprietress at night. There are places in St. Giles where all manner of such revelations take place.
    “But I suspect that those boys simply drink their fill of gin, some losing their purses to the pickpockets which are found in every public place, until they stagger out into the street and start a row. There, see that fellow just there? I suspect he is one of them.” He jerked his head over toward a group of people standing on the side of the lane.
    “Where?” asked Sophie. Then spying the man he had indicated she said, “That stiff gentleman standing on the corner? Is he a peep-o-day boy, too? He doesn’t look sleepy, and he seems too proper for what you were relating.”
    Tony laughed, but in the kind way he had. “No, not a peep-o-day boy. A pickpocket. And the reason he appears so stiff is because he is gammoning the draper.”
    “What does that mean?” asked Sophie suspiciously. She was not at all sure that he was not teasing her.
    “That is just a cant expression. It means that he is concealing the fact that he has no shirt. See the way his coat is buttoned up so tightly, straight up to his neckcloth? That is so you will not notice the absence of shirt and waistcoat beneath.”
     Sophie did not know whether to be impressed or suspicious. She still thought he might be teasing her.  Looking over at the object of their discussion once again, she asked, “How do you know that? He appears quite normal to me.”
    Tony’s smile expressed such satisfaction with her that she had to believe him. “That is what he hopes you will think. Don’t you see? He would not be much good at his trade if his tricks were too